Posted: Fri Apr 8, 2022 12:31pm
Good morning both.
When we were looking for areas to move to, all we had decided on was Costa Blanca South and a country villa, we didn't narrow down to a particular town until we had visited. We looked at various towns and Albatera just felt right for us.
The biggest shock when we moved was how cold Spanish houses are in winter as generally they are of single skin construction with little or no insulation and poorly performing windows. If you get an F rating, you will be lucky! Elda is about 400m above sea level and believe me, you will feel it. The subject comes up again and again every winter. Damp is also an issue as DPC is not used.
Living in a Spanish town, if you don't speak Spanish, you could struggle and will almost certainly need an interpreter for medical appointments which can be quite embarrassing at times. I can get by most of the time reading Spanish and I've picked up quite a bit but once I've asked my question in Spanish, I'm lost when they answer. I'm lucky if I can pick up the odd word here or there. That said, we are still here and still loving it but it has not all been plain sailing.
Find yourselves a gestor to help you with officialdom, they will be much cheaper than a solicitor.
The general advice is to rent before you buy so you have time to adapt to living here rather than being a tourist. Buying is expensive and if you don't get it right first time there will be even more expense and it could take months to sell.
Never use the solicitor recommended by the estate agent and don't give any deposit to them, it needs to go to your own independent solicitor.
Always thoroughly check the property you want to buy before you put down a deposit. Get everything turned on to check they work and don't leak. How many sockets are there? Ours had one per room but then we bought a renovation project.
Check the deeds exactly match the property paying particular attention to anything that looks as if it may have been added or open areas enclosed, if it is not on the deeds then the vendor has to sort this out at their own expense.
Take everything the agent says with a pinch of salt and double check it yourselves as nothing is a problem in their world.
It is an exciting time but don't go falling in love with something online before you have visited an area.
Don't ever worry about asking questions on here but if you put "everything" and Elda into the search bar, there is not much activity on the local forum.